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Review on πŸ“€ LG BD550 Network Blu-ray Disc Player (2010 Model): Enhanced Connectivity for a Complete Home Theater Experience by Chad Chavez

Revainrating 4 out of 5

very good value for money

This is my first experience with a Blu-ray player. Was bought for my mother. What struck me the most was how thin it is. But they seem about the same size now. The disc tray is also very thin and feels fragile. I bought it hoping for a budget Blu-ray player with good performance and that's exactly what it is. One of the features that prompted the purchase was the ability to stream movies. I knew that connecting to a wired network would be easy in my situation, so I didn't need a wireless connection. If you want wireless, don't buy this model. In my situation, network bandwidth is limited because my mom bought Clearwire, but the video streaming service she subscribes to is Netflix, which can adjust the playback quality until the video stream is smooth. It is very noticeable that the image is in a lower resolution, but not very disturbing. The Netflix setup menu on the player was easy for me. I somehow know this case, but the process was short-lived, so most likely there will be no problems. I haven't tried others. Trying to browse and select movies through the LG Netflix interface isn't fun. The Netflix app is too limited in size and features. The best way is to select movies from the web browser on your computer, put them on the instant play mark, and then start your Blu-ray player and watch the movies. The screen this is playing on is just a 32 inch 720P LCD. so no exemplary test situation, but the picture is more than perfect when playing a blu-ray disc. dvds also look better than on a dvd player, it's strange how good the picture looks. The sound is also much better than the sound system I use, although it's a decent system and sounds great. The physical setup was very simple. Plug in the power cord, network cable, HDMI cable and you're done. I would recommend buying an HDMI cable. It simplifies setup. One bug found was an update notification. Essentially, the machine is a low-power computer focused on video playback. It's got software on it. update the software during installation but when i said "continue" it failed. Repeated. However, you could cancel the update notification for now and tell it not to bother you until the next update arrives. Keep in mind that streaming services don't generally offer subtitles yet. This is a very desirable trait for both my mother and daughter-in-law. If you need them, then streaming isn't the medium for you. The convenience of being able to "rent" a movie from your living room is very nice. But real physical discs with fantastic picture quality, extras, subtitles and all their menu options are way better. There was a huge plus last night. The rental DVD was very dirty and playback froze. I removed the drive, cleaned it, put it back in and it picked up where it left off. WOW! That was cool. good car Startup is fast enough, sound is good, picture is good, wired network only, pretty easy to use, good price.

Pros
  • TV & Video
Cons
  • uncertain